Thursday, April 13, 2006

In the post 9/11 world, we can never be too careful, as we saw the other day at the University of Georgia. The braniacs currently attending my alma mater apparently thought it was still OK to dress up and run around on campus. Oops. For the uninformed, ATF agents ran down a 'suspicious individual' who was lurking around the dining hall area dressed in black garb with red bandanas. He was coming from a student event called "Ninja's Vs Pirates" or some such theme. Story. (These 'theme nights' happen all the time at UGA) Anyhow, another student with a camera phone took the picture of the agents with the kid on the ground in cuffs, and it made the AP newswire (Jmac has a small roundup). It is tearing up the blogosphere,too.

6 comments:

Georgia Mom
said...

I suppose we of the Athens Chamber Singers should be especially wary, as we are performing a rather long piece, "Pirate Treasure," in 2 weeks. Will they confiscate our pirate hats? Do we need to watch for ATF in the audience?Ahh, how far we have fallen!!!!Dean Tate, are you up there in heaven watching over this campus?

They still do theme nights? Geez. The weirdest roommate I had at UGA did the vampire theme nights. She was a sad individual, not because she did vampire stuff, but because her Church-of-Christ idea of dressing like a vampire was wearing a short skirt, high heels, and really red lipstick. Lame.

But seriously, was the guy "lurking"? Or just "jogging," as the article says. To be honest, that is a bit suspicious. Personally, I think it shows poor judgment to be jogging in a mask, but then I work in a high school, where masks are strictly forbidden, even on Halloween. Students aren't even allowed to wear the hoods on their hoodies. Any concealment of identity is against the rules. For this reason, I may be biased because I see the logic and need for said rule.

The ATF agent seems to have acted a bit rashly, but I get it. It's easy to misinterpret that sort of situation. The statement that a trained official wouldn't mistake a wallet or keys for a gun is ridiculous though. And for that, I roll my eyes in his general direction.

The ATF tends to err on the side of shooting pregnant women so you really have to take this with a grain of salt.

I still maintain what I have written on the georgiasports.blogspot.com page. This was not an ATF raid. It was the GI Joe team hot on the trail of the Cobra operative codenamed Stormshadow. Stormshadow gave them the slip and they mistook this poor guy for him. They made up the ATF angle to protect their cover. Who else would be out there searching for ninjas?

So, the Pops has been hearing a lot about this one (as y'all might imagine). He says to tell y'all that the ATF will meet any challenge, anywhere. They have a special, 8 day prep class for anti-Ninja warfare that allows them to be our first line of defense against this ancient martial arts menace.

I've also heard tell that the University of Georgia has contacted the ATF about a possible anti-jackass-tailgater task force...

I shoved a pregnant woman once. She was pickpocketing my friend in front of La Pieta, and of course the belly turned out to be a fake. That hoodrat ruined my moment of artistic nirvana. All I'm saying is just because a shawty gets knocked up doesn't mean she don't need a cap in her ass.

And I don't know why I'm defending the ATF agents here, except perhaps because I identify with the authoritarian side of society. Always have.

Personally, I think this was hysterical and the action taken appropriate. But I have no yen to harp on what may divide us. Let us focus on that aspect of this story we can all come together and agree on:

Ninjas aren't supposed to be seen. This is just positive reinforcement.